


Keith Drabbles

by In_Flagrante_Delicto



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: ?? - Freeform, Alienation, Angst, Birthday Cake, Birthday Party, Drabble Collection, Female Pronouns for Pidge | Katie Holt, Gen, Keith (Voltron) Angst, Keith (Voltron)-centric, Mental Link, Mind Meld, Orphan Keith (Voltron), Panic Attacks, Secrets, Stream of Consciousness
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-11-12
Updated: 2018-09-21
Packaged: 2019-02-01 03:23:13
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 1,247
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12696267
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/In_Flagrante_Delicto/pseuds/In_Flagrante_Delicto
Summary: Drabbles about Keith. I will add tags as I go.





	1. Separated (Secrets)

The problem Pidge had, Keith thought, was that she was trying to hard not the think about what she wanted to keep private.

When the paladins joined in the mental link, all their memories, all their feeling were, not exposed, but opened. You could try to remember something, only to access someone else’s mind for the information. It was automatic, done almost unknowingly as they joined into Voltron, as they became one being.

The secret to it, Keith discovered, is to take all the memories, thoughts, feelings, and shove them into the far corners into your mind. Cover them with facts, numbers, statistics. Cover that with recent events. Then create a constant, distracting stream of thoughts and feeling of the now. Think about what you are doing. Think about what you are eating. Think about…

After that, after you perfectly construct this mind frame, stick to it. Convince everyone that this is the way your brain works, the way you mentally organise things. (If you need to do something impulsive, something the others won’t approve of, open a second stream of thought, below the first. Hidden for long enough to act.)

No one else had figured it out yet. But then everyone’s brains seemed to work differently to Keith’s. Maybe it was all the learned behaviours and thoughts. Maybe it was the way that their thought were more free-flowing. They didn’t jump thought to thought while a secondary layer calculated everything, every risk. 

Maybe it was just because Keith was a little bit broken.

Maybe it was because they had never had to create mental walls, to remind themselves what they should know, what they should talk about, how they should act around certain people. They didn’t have files on mental files documenting behaviour, likely reactions to stimuli. 

Pidge had something similar to this:  
_How to act like a boy_ , in some far corner of her mind. Nearly forgotten. (Why would she need it now? All her secrets were open to the team)

But maybe the reason that everyone thought differently was…

Maybe it was because they functioned like normal human beings, and not like Keith.


	2. Birthday (Part 1)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Keith’s best birthday was when he turned 15. This is not then. This is when he turned 13, and had a birthday for the first time.

Keith is….

Overwhelmed.

He is sitting at a table in the Shiroganes household.  
He does not live there, but he is friends with their son, Shiro.  
Shiro is sitting across from him.  
It is the 23rd of October.

These are all things that Keith can identify easily. He is struggling to control his breathing, his panic at being thrust into this situation trying to force him to hyperventilate.

What is going on? He asks himself. I need to know what’s going on.

It is the 23rd of October.  
He is a year older today. He is thirteen today.

 Is that it?

What do people do for that? Keith asks himself. He has never celebrated a birthday before. He doesn’t know what happens on a birthday.

He doesn’t…

He doesn’t know what to do.

Keith makes eye contact with Shiro. Shiro smiles. Keith feels the tendrils of panic slither up his back.

Shiro’s mum puts a cake in front of him, and Keith’s chest heaves. His breath accelerates, catching in his throat.

“Well?” Shiro’s dad says, “Blow out the candles!”

And Keith just…

 _Breaks_.

His breaths are painful, pressing against his throat, and there is a pressure…

Keith tries to calm down, tries to take a deep breath. Fails.

He chokes on sobs as tears stream down his face. His breath comes in quick, short gasps. His hands shake, clenched into fists under the table. He tilts his head down, his hair covering his face. He bring his shoulders up, and pulls them in, trying to be as small as he can. He gasps for breath, each one more shallow.

“Oh god, oh god,” his mind helpfully supplies. Then there are hands on his shoulders.


	3. Birthday (Part 2)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Continuation of Keith’s first birthday, with the bonus of a birthday that happens years later, in space.

“Oh god, oh god,” his mind helpfully supplies. Then there are hands on his shoulders.

They belong to none other than Shiro. Shiro, who looks worried. 

Shiro, who was throwing him a… birthday party?

The tears dry on his face as he looks into Shiro’s eyes. He’s alright. He’s okay now.

He… panicked because someone through him a birthday party.

“Sorry,” he said, embarrassed, still feeling the shakiness and anxiety from moments before. “I’m so sorry Shiro!”

Shiro, despite his worry, despite his guilt (“I throw him a party, and he has a panic attack? What did I do wrong?”) is calm. He is reassuring.

Keith calms down a bit. Shiro takes him up to his room, away from the cake and presents. Away from the panic of an unknown situation.

Keith smiles. And laughs at Shiro’s dumb jokes. He apologises nearly a million times. Shiro repeats: “It’s okay!” Until it is. When Keith calms down enough and Shiro says sorry, they go back downstairs.

They eat cake. Keith opens a present, and then asks Shiro to open the other one for him. The party goes well. 

(Years later, the paladins of Voltron find out, somehow, that it is Keith’s birthday. They plan a surprise for him. Shiro comes to him early in the day, and explains what is going to happen. Keith is grateful.

When they spring the ‘surprise’ on him, all eager faces and smiles, his breath catches in his throat. Shiro smiles reassuringly. Keith gets through the party alright, even if at one point he has to retreat to his room to has a panic attack under the pretence of needing the bathroom.

Shiro smiles. Keith can see he is remembering the first birthday Keith had. Even now, in space, there is family in reach.)


	4. Do you like like him?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Good old fashioned talks of crushes.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It’s a bit different from the other drabbles, but it’s been,,,,,, a while

The paladins are sitting on the couches, bored. There hasn’t been a mission for weeks.

“So,” Says Pidge.

“So,” Lance repeats, louder.

“I’m so bored!” Hunk complains, dragging out his words.

“We could train?” Shiro suggests, already getting up. “Do some more team building?”

Pidge, Lance and Hunk all groan. Keith rolls his eyes at them. Training isn’t _that_ bad.

“Oh, I know!” Lance says. “We can talk crushes!”

Keith scoffs, standing up. “What is this, a slumber party? I vote we train.”

“No, Keith c’mon, let’s talk crushes!” Interrupts Pidge, who’s not yet bored enough to want to see a Lance vs. Keith smackdown.

Keith looks at Shiro. Shiro shrugs and sits down. Keith sighs heavily, and flops back onto the couch, crossing his arms.

 _This is dumb_ , Keith thinks.

Shiro claps his hands, taking charge of the conversation. “Hunk. You and Shay, huh?”

Hunk blushes and hides his face with his hands. Pidge giggles.

“I didn’t agree to this!” Hunk near shouts, folding his shoulders to make himself smaller.

“You didn’t say no,” Lance points out.

“Doesn’t mean I agreed!” Hunk says, his voice jumping up a pitch.

“Okay, okay,” Shiro interrupts. “Lance. You still like Allura?”

Lance looks off into the middle distance, and Keith can almost see the hearts in his eyes.

“She’s just… so amazing,” Lance begins. “And strong! She could probably crush me with her pinkie.”

Pidge rolls her eyes, and Keith sinks lower into his seat. This is going to be a while.

After a few minutes, Shiro stands up.

“This was a good chat,” He says and he makes for the door.

“No! Wait!” Pidge and Lance call out almost simultaneously.

Keith makes eye contact with Shiro, a clear message of ‘ _If I have to sit through this, so do you,_ ’.

Standing in the doorway, facing the other paladins, Shiro pales.


End file.
